Drought in austrailia

• drought is recurrent in austrailia
• how is drought recognised in austrailia ?

  serious deficiency

  sever deficiency
• what is serious deficiency?

  rainfall totals within ten per cent of values recorded for at least three months
• what is severe deficiency?

  rainfall totals within the lowest five per cent of values on record for at least three months
• what is the drainage baisin in austrailia which contains the capital?

  the muray-darling basin (capital is canberra)
• how many rivers are in the murary-darling basin?

  the darling river

  the murary river

  warrengo river
• how many states does the murary-darling basin cross?

  queensland

  south austrailia

  victoria
• what does the murary-dalring basin crossing multiple states cause?


  conflict in management
• what was a very long drought in austrailia?

  the 'big dry' in 2006
• why might austrailia have low rainfall? (physical factor)

  because the climate is dominated by the sub-tropical high-pressure belt (between the hadley and ferrel cells) of the southern hemisphere
• why might austrailia have lots of droughts?

  most are closely linked to el nino events (physical factor)
• what has happened since the 1970s in austrailia?

  there has been a shift in rainfall patterns in the eastern area (where most people live), and therefore it has become drier compared to north western areas
• how diastrous was the big dry?

  it was assessed as being 1-in-1000 year event

  spread nationwide

  affected more than half the farmlands, especially in the murray-darling basin which provides 50% of the nations agricultural products
• imapcts of the big dry?


  ...
• how low did reservoirs fall in the big dry?

  to 40% of their capacity, despite there being sophisticated water supply schemes which are designed to withstand dry-episodes
• where was most vunerable in austrailia in the big dry?

  adelaide in south austrailia, it drew 40% of its drinking water from the river murray

  recently, the river has been so over-extracted that no water has flowed at its mouth
• why does austrailia have such a high water consumption?

  it has a growing population and an affluent water-consuming lifestyle, per capita water consumption is one of highest in world
• what are the plans for the future of austrailia to combat demand/supply?

  news schemes eg desalinisation plants, large scale recycling of grey water and sewage and more water conservation strategies
• what is thought for the future of austrailias water?

  demand will exceed supply, more el nino events due to climate change
• what will happen with limited wtare supply?


  conflict (check slides)